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English III Syllabus 2014-2015

Emily Bennett

English III is an American Literature course with a focus on the analysis of United States literature as it pertains to social viewpoints and historical significance. The emphasis is critical analysis of texts through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and using media (DPI Eng III). Honors students will be issued a textbook. We will focus on a vast array of American literature while also honing writing skills with the study and practice of many genres of writing. Students will be assessed at the end of the semester by the English III Common Exam, which will account for 20% of their overall grade. The exam is composed of different types of reading passages (poetry, short story, fiction and non-fiction). Students will answer multiple-choice questions and write constructed responses to test their comprehension and skills.
1ST QUARTER UNITS / 2ND QUARTER UNITS
Summer Reading
Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men: The Dust Bowl and Great Depression
Introduction to Ms. Bennett’s Class
-Class rules; procedures; cooperative learning
Memoir
Memoir vs. Fiction; Style of Memoir; Literacy Autobiography; Memoir Project
Puritanism
Miller: The Crucible: Salem Witch Trials; The Red Scare; Herb Block
Argumentation and Persuasive Speaking
Benjamin Franklin; Patrick Henry; rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques

The Big Question Research Project

Research Process and Argumentative Research Paper: MLA Format; Paraphrasing/Summarizing; Argumentation / Point of View
Bierce: “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”: unreliable narrator; The Three Little Pigs vs. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs; Poe: “The Tell-Tale Heart”
19th Century
àRomanticism & Gothic Literature
Irving: “The Devil and Tom Walker,” “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Poe: “The Raven,” “Fall of the House of Usher”; comparison of Poe and horror film
àTranscendentalism
Emerson, Thoreau, Dead Poet’s Society
Realism
Twain: Huckleberry Finn; dialect; parody and satire; episodic novel; slavery and Frederick Douglass; Bierce, Twain, London, Chopin: “Story of an Hour”, irony
The American Dream: Poverty vs. Prosperity
Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: The Roaring 20s
The Transparent Society
Stockett: The Help: The Civil Rights Movement; Dunbar: “We Wear the Mask”
Yearlong: Word Within the Word; Journals; Literary Elements; Vocabulary Practice / End of Course Test: English III Common Exam